


The Herd Boy

by orphan_account



Series: In the Spring, In the Summer [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, an au i like to call: "the kagema au", the beginning of something???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 18:19:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12086685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: In the morning when Hajime woke up, Tooru was gone.





	The Herd Boy

**Author's Note:**

> Um, yeah. This has Not Been Edited At All. I just felt the need to post something here, and I had this idea, so, I may or may not build off of it. I may make a kind of disjointed story in a collection of drabbles?
> 
> If you see any typos, or mistakes in the lore or vocabulary or anything, please don't hesitate to point them out? (I'm not a historian, so, I probably messed some stuff up lol) :P
> 
> be honest, tho, **lmk** if you want to see more of this? I'm working on some other shit rn so It'd be nice to get a little change from that.

 

Earlier that day, a man had come to their home in the mountainside. He’d pulled Tooru into another room and poked him and prodded at him and ran his meaty hands through Tooru’s hair and forced all his clothes off.

 Hajime couldn’t look in, but he heard Tooru’s protests, and his dubious obedience to the man. When the man came back out, he spoke to Hajime’s parents for a long time. Hajime was told not to go into the room Tooru had been left in, but he’d had enough with waiting, and didn’t expect his parents to finish talking any time soon. He slowly slid the door open.

 

 “Tooru?” he called softly.

 “Hajime-!” and suddenly, two small arms flew around Hajime’s neck. Instinctively Hajime wrapped his arms around Tooru’s waist. He was wearing his normal kosode, although the thin obi around his waist seemed haphazardly tied.

 “Tooru, what is it? What happened? Did he do anything bad to you?”

 “No, he didn’t,” Tooru murmured into the crook of Hajime’s neck, still clinging to him tightly. By the way his voice wavered, Hajime could tell he was lying; but he didn’t press the matter any further. He didn’t want to upset Tooru, because his moods could last for days.

 They both sank to their knees on the floor.

 “Hajime?” Tooru asked, pulling away to look Hajime in the eyes. His thighs were on either side of Hajime’s legs.

 “What?”

 “Do you think they’re gonna take me away from you? Since ‘kaachan…” he trailed off.

 “No.” Hajime replied firmly. “They won’t take you away from me. You’re my best friend! They wouldn’t do that.” But Hajime wasn’t so sure. His parents could be quite fickle, at the best of times.

 Tooru remained silent. After a moment, he rested his head down on Hajime’s shoulder.

 “Hajime?” Tooru asked. His voice seemed twelve times smaller, too vulnerable.

 “Mmhm?” Hajime leaned his head against Tooru’s, feeling his soft curls tickle his cheek.

 “I miss ‘kaachan…” he sniffed. Hajime’s entire body sagged. He thought this might be coming. Tooru’s mother had allegedly been a ‘family friend.’ Only a year or so ago, she got sick, and couldn’t take care of herself _and_ a young boy. She sold her house, and moved in with Hajime’s family; she took the money from her previous house and gave it to Hajime’s family, as some sort of compensation for the ungodly amount of help she was asking of them.

 Hajime met Tooru when he was four. His family, the Iwaizumi clan, had been an elite and wealthy family for years, but Tooru’s family, the Oikawa clan, slowly made their way down the social ladder.

  _“A few toxic marriages, and that’s what’ll happen. They made some bad decisions, and now they ask for help? Bah! Right!”_ Hajime’s father had argued with his wife. But Hajime’s mother pleaded:

  _“Please, Juzo, she won’t live much longer at this rate, it’s the least we can do-“_

_“No! Not for a filthy commoner such as her! Not in this house!”_

_“Juzo,”_ she had cried. Hajime had never heard his mother cry like that. Not to her father. This argument went late into the night, in which his father finally gave in to his wife.

 While Tooru and his mother lived with them, they took care of her together. Hajime’s parents raised Hajime and Tooru side by side, and they learned and grew together.

 Nearly two years later, Tooru’s mother seemed like she was healing well. She could stand, and walk, and she told stories to the boys every night before bed; wild and extravagant tales of heroes and monsters alike, creatures Hajime and Tooru had never thought to have existed. Stories of love, passionate or one-sided, or two people who danced around each other before they finally realized their true feelings for each other.

 She seemed like she was fully healed, until Tooru’s sixth birthday. She was fine one moment, but when she went outside to tend to the garden plants, she fell. She couldn’t stand, couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. She died in nearly a minute. The quickest relapse he had ever seen, said the doctor.

 Hajime’s mother never told them stories. Sometimes Hajime’s father acted like Tooru didn’t exist.

 There used to be a special sparkle in Tooru’s eyes, one that Hajime took for granted. He didn’t think he’d miss that sparkle in Tooru’s eyes as much as he did.

 Tooru grieved quietly during the day, keeping a mask on so he didn’t seem weak to Hajime’s father. But at night, Tooru crawled under Hajime’s blanket and sobbed into his shoulder. Deep, bone-rattling sobs; tight and choked and painful. Hajime cried too, he missed her, but not nearly as much as Tooru did.

 “I know you do,” Hajime whispered. “I miss her too.”

 “Do… do you remember? The stories she used to tell? The one about the weaving maiden?”

 Hajime blinked. “Of course I do.”

 “ _Sorrow, long-age sorrow, shall come upon the Weaving Maiden when she leaves her room_.” Tooru recited softly.

 “Well, it was the maiden’s father’s fault, right? He was the reason she became sad, because he took her true love away?” Hajime remembered.

 “That’s right. He took her away.” Tooru shifted in Hajime’s arms, and pulled away, fixing his obi and glancing out the window. Hajime shivered at the sudden lack of warmth. “He took her lover away, and she became the saddest thing in heaven. That was the first story my mom ever told me, you know. The Weaving Maiden and the Herd Boy.”

 A lump grew in Hajime’s throat. He didn’t reply.

 

\---

 

 

 That night, they all ate dinner in silence. Hajime ate his rice with his chopsticks instead of his fingers. He wasn’t in the mood to joke around tonight. It felt like the calm before the storm. It was peaceful, yet terrifying at the same time.  

 That night, when Hajime went to bed, Tooru crawled in next to him, and fell asleep with his arms curled around Hajime's waist.

 

 ---

 

 In the morning when Hajime woke up, Tooru was gone. He sat bolt upright. Usually Tooru was right there next to him, unless he felt sick. Hajime checked the wash closet, but Tooru wasn’t there either. He checked outside by the morning glories, Tooru’s favorite place to hide.

 Nowhere. Nowhere in sight.

 He heard some yelling outside, and the sound of a horse-drawn _something_ made its clip-clop noise, slowly growing fainter as the horses trotted away.

 He ran into the main room, where Hajime’s parents sat, speaking to each other as if nothing was wrong.

 “What did you do to him?!” Hajime cried. His mother flinched, but his father merely looked at him.

 “Hajime, now listen here-“

  _“No!_ What did you do to him? _Where did you send him?!”_ Hajime felt tears prick in his eyes, heat rising in his chest.

 “Hajime, it was going to happen. This has been planned for years, the deal was, we’d keep him until his mother passed, and then we’d send him to the orphanage-“

 Hajime saw his mother’s eye twitch.

 “Lying! You’re lying! You sent him somewhere terrible, didn’t you, you must have thrown him underground, or to a-!”

 “Hajime!” his mother nearly shouted. “Be still! Your father is right!”

 “Wh-“ Hajime’s mouth fell open.

 She stood up, and walked toward him. She reached out to touch his shoulder, but he pulled away. Her eyes looked pained.

 “It’s best,” she took a deep breath. “Hajime. It’s  best if you forget about Tooru.”

 Hajime stood still. His entire world crashed down around him in seven words.

 He turned and ran to his bedroom, crashing into his bed. He fell over, tugging a pillow down with him.

 He brought the pillow to his face, and screamed into it. He screamed and screamed, until his throat was raw, and the pillow was soaked in tears.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> (i may have rushed the ending a little, whoops ;P) iwa n oiks are about nine or ten when this takes place
> 
> i have a [tumblr](https://iwaoi-oi.tumblr.com/)  
> and a [writing blog](https://para-k33t.tumblr.com/)


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